Pernicious

Perry Davis, a voluptuous grey-eyed goddess, tips a flat-bottom boat on Willie Davis, her third husband, during a nighttime fishing excursion. Detective Tasha Montgomery and her partner, Bob Kelso, investigate another homicide involving a young gunned-down African American male in Little Rock, Arkansas. Tasha expresses a weariness of gun violence and tells Bob that she now fears pulling a trigger—this internal conflict will incur major repercussions in the end. At Tasha's apartment, she and her ex, Neal Montgomery, get into a spat over the care of their eight-year-old son, Derrick, and Tasha insists he leaves (Tasha's penchant for kicking Neal out will also create a dilemma in the end). Doris Davis, Willie’s mother, implores Tasha to investigate her son’s death as a homicide. Tasha checks several databases and discovers that Perry Davis has gained almost two million dollars in insurance money from the deaths of her three husbands. Though Bob is reluctant to investigate Perry, Tasha is certain she is a cold-blooded murderer and is bound and determined to bring her to justice. Perry agrees to go with Tasha and Bob for an interrogation, but, inexplicably, exposes her vajayjay to Bob before leaving her house. Tasha botches the interrogation when she gets upset and personally insults Perry, who also loses her cool. Perry walks to her house and recalls a childhood assault where the perpetrator told her to take what she wants in life. "TAKE IT!" Tasha and Neal reunite in the bedroom, but minutes later, they have another argument over their son and Tasha kicks Neal out of her apartment. Later that night, Perry bumps into Neal with a shopping cart at the grocery store. The seduction is on and popping. At Perry’s house, she teases Neal with a glimpse of her gold-dyed vajayjay but spurns his advances (while vajayjay is a tad obscure, it sounds more mellifluous than the p-word and it rhymes, too). The next day, Perry visits Neal at his place, a relative’s garage, and tells him she needs a gun for protection. Neal balks at first, but when Perry kneels to give him oral resuscitation, he tells her, “I’ll see what I can do.” Tasha arrives home moments after Neal has taken her service weapon, a 9mm Glock, out of a safe. Neal gives the Glock to Perry, and she gives him the carrot she has been dangling in front of him (notice how I resisted the temptation to write VAJAYJAY again.) Perry goes to her hometown, Dawson, Arkansas, and she and her cousin, JD, go to a juke joint where Perry pistol-whips a wino and purchases a Glock like the one she got from Neal. Sheriff Ennis Bledsoe stops Perry during her return to Little Rock, commences a car search, but is called away by dispatch with a disturbance call at the juke joint that Perry had just left. Perry calls Neal—recuperating at her house after a night of overly animated calisthenics —and proposes marriage to him. Neal balks, but reconsiders after Perry tells him how many millions she has. Sheriff Bledsoe visits Tasha and informs her that he needs a current photo of Perry for identification purposes in his wino-assault case. Tasha and Sheriff Bledsoe talk to Perry at her house, and when Perry exits the room, Neal enters wearing a kimono robe. Tasha flips, insisting that Neal go get in the car despite him telling her that he is now married to Perry. Sheriff Bledsoe stops Tasha from assaulting Neal with an ashtray and carries her out of the house. Perry tells Neal to go get dressed. “We have things to do.” Tasha sobs as she tells Sheriff Bledsoe that Perry will most likely kill Neal. Perry and Neal go to Tasha’s apartment where she tells him to take Tasha’s Glock back, and then they go to an insurance company where she tells him, “You’re a millionaire now—all millionaires need insurance.” Tasha exhorts Sheriff Bledsoe to arrest Perry before she kills again. Sheriff Bledsoe reminds her that he needs someone to ID Perry before he can arrest her. At the precinct, Perry insists that Neal accompany her inside to file a complaint against Tasha. This time Neal balks and holds firm (he may not have a pair, but he has one). Tasha confronts Perry inside the precinct and warns her not to hurt Neal or “You’ll be sorry.” Perry mentions Derrick, and Tasha snaps and kicks Perry’s ass. Officers intervene and break up the confrontation. Perry remains prone, insisting her back is broken, saying, “She tried to kill me!” Tasha’s commanding officer suspends her without pay pending an IA review. During the ambulance ride, Perry tells Neal she has lost three husbands to accidents and, "I don't want to lose you, my love." Later, Perry will tell Neal a narcissistic version of the death of her second husband, Lester Perkins, as we see her pound him with a large rock as he hangs from a cliff. A snapshot of this spectacular Hitchcockesque scene is depicted in the poster. Bob visits Tasha and tells her that Perry has filed an assault charge against her and filed a custody order for her son. Though devastated by the news, Tasha realizes that Perry intends to kill Neal and frame her for his murder. Tasha meets with Neal at McArthur Park and informs him that Perry intends to kill him. Neal doubts this. Tasha pleads with Neal to return to her and Derrick. Neal mentions Tasha's tendency to kick him out. Tasha promises him that this time will be different. "Just come home. Please." Perry, parked nearby, watches Neal and Tasha with binoculars. A week later, Tasha goes to the juke joint with Sheriff Bledsoe to question a witness who saw Perry assault the wino. Tasha then learns that Perry bought a Glock to accompany the Glock she brought with her. Tasha drops Derrick at Perry’s house to spend time with Neal. Perry catches Derrick coming out of her bedroom and throttles him. Tasha accepts an invitation to meet Perry at a restaurant. Perry spikes Tasha’s drink and takes her to her apartment and hogties her. Neal and Perry go to Tasha’s apartment, ostensibly to get Derrick’s clothes, and Perry shoots and kills Neal with Tasha’s Glock. End of story. Not quite, but if you got the entire ending, you wouldn’t be interested in reading the script, would you?